21 Facts About Bart Cummings

Bart Cummings was known as the Cups King, referring to the Melbourne Cup, as he won 'the race that stops a nation' a record twelve times.

Bart Cummings was born in 1927, in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of the accomplished trainer Jim Bart Cummings, who trained the great stayer Comic Court to a win in the 1950 Melbourne Cup.

Bart Cummings received his trainer licence in 1953, and set up stables at Glenelg in South Australia.

Bart Cummings had a record total of 89 runners in the Melbourne Cup starting in 1958 with Asian Court who finished twelfth.

In 1968, Bart Cummings opened stables, now called Saintly Lodge, at Flemington in Melbourne, home of the Flemington Racecourse.

In 1975, Bart Cummings moved his operations to a new facility near Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, called 'Leilani Lodge'.

Bart Cummings trained and co-owned Ming Dynasty with his wife Valmae, horse breeder Lloyd Foyster and his wife Jacqueline, and Ron and Hildegard Websdale.

Unfortunately, like many other trainers Bart Cummings was hit hard by the recession of the early 1990s.

Bart Cummings had training facilities at Randwick and Flemington but in 2014 the Flemington stables closed and all horses and training moved to Randwick.

Bart Cummings had gone into virtual retirement at Princes his property at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Bart Cummings achieved 246 Group 1 victories and more than 776 stakes victories.

In 1965,1966,1974,1975, and 1991, Bart Cummings trained both the first- and second-placed horses in the Melbourne Cup.

We're extremely pleased that Bart Cummings endorsed this initiative, which importantly is in general admission and accessible to all,.

Bart Cummings has generously bequeathed a collection of his trophies for public display at Flemington, and in time Saintly Place will become a permanent trackside museum dedicated to the Cups King.

Bart Cummings met Valmae "Val" at a church social in Adelaide, and they married in 1954.

Bart Cummings had five children: daughters Sharon, Anne-Marie, and Margaret and sons John and Anthony.

Bart Cummings's son Anthony and grandson James are trainers, while second grandson Edward was a stable foreman with Anthony but has now been approved to train in partnership with Anthony.

Bart Cummings died on 30 August 2015 in Prince's Farm in Castlereagh, NSW, two days after he and wife Valmae celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary.

On 28 October 2016, a dispute over Bart Cummings' will was heard in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

In November 2016, two sisters in Adelaide, Kimberley and Julia Mander, went public with a claim that Bart Cummings was the father of their father, Peter Mander, from a relationship with their grandmother, Patricia Kilmartin.

Cummings' daughter Sharon Robinson has said that she is happy to give a DNA sample and to meet the girls who would be her nieces if Bart Cummings is proved to be their grandfather.